Checking what VT sugar makers are doing

[blissville maples]

I noticed in past the CVS and white smart spouts do this alot. I again tried some CVS and hope doesn't present an issue. I guess that's another early season issue along with broken stuff! Glad I waited this year besides I'm after sugar not water!! I see gravity guys already tapped- they are gonna suffer poor yield I believe, it's just too early trees are sleeping still, we need to have winter first.....

[drewlamb]

While in the woods yesterday i noticed some of my spouts popped out of the trees. I sure hope this is not going to be a season long problem. I remember General having a bunch of this happen to him a few years ago. The ten day forecast shows no signs of sap running. I'm hoping the season starts the third week of March and runs hard for four weeks straight. The snow is still very deep in the wood. I hope the rain tomorrow melts some.

Spud

What kind of taps are they?

[spud]

The spout that popped out were all clear smart spouts. Half my woods has brand new drops with smart spouts. The other half has CV2 spouts.

Spud

[GeneralStark]

Spud - The spouts came out of the tree? I haven't had that happen. My issue has been the drop coming off the spout; CV2 or smart spout without a barb. It's already happened again once but I'm pretty sure I have the fix.

I finished tapping this week and have pulled in a little sap the last couple days and it is running better today. Will end up letting it freeze in the tank until it really runs...some day. Last year we were boiling in January and most of February.

[VTfarmboy]

1gpt since friday testing 2.2%, ran well till about midnight.

[tcross]

I put in 225 taps saturday and it took me about 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours longer than it ever has. snow up to my belly button without snow shoes, and up to my shins/knee with em. the local yarded up deer have taken a liking to the back half of my sugar bush gnawing their way through my tubing. sure hope they give me another doe permit this year!! the trees oughtta be froze up for a good while with the weather we've had and all this snow!

[DrTimPerkins]

Doesn't look real promising for northern Vermont for at least another week, so perhaps a little fun.

I've mentioned several times at work that when I was young I remember that the kids often drove the hay truck or tractor gathering sap, because they were too small to toss bales onto the wagon or to carry full pails of sap through the snow. I don't think they really believed me, but I recall driving the truck across fields (hand-throttle, no power steering). You just had to go reasonably straight and not run over bales. An adult would jump in at the edge of the field and crank it around and get you started on the next row). Of course, once you were big enough, you got promoted to sap buckets and lugging wood.

Anyhow, my wife was cleaning out a box of photos today, and came across a DVD of old home videos. One scene was sugaring with a bulldozer pulling a sledge with a gathering tank. A small kid about 9-10 crawls up onto the bulldozer (with some difficulty) and drives off, with the adults pointing out where to go as they walk around gathering buckets. Really funny and a great blast from the past.

kid-bulldozer.JPG

[blissville maples]

Looks like one more week of this cold and then we should all be in for some extremely busy days keeping up with some major runs. I'm liking the thought of a concentrated 6-8 week sugaring season sure beats last year.

Since Sunday the 17th I Have tapped and tightened up to 27" 2450 of 3450 taps. Started my last sugarbush today should be tapped and all equipment tuned up by end of week, tighten that up this weekend and get ready!!

[spud]

Dr. Tim those were the days for sure. The things we did back in the day are looked at as crazy now. Nowadays kids spend their time Face Booking their 50,000 friends and complaining how hard life is.

Spud

[n8hutch]

Doesn't look real promising for northern Vermont for at least another week, so perhaps a little fun.

I've mentioned several times at work that when I was young I remember that the kids often drove the hay truck or tractor gathering sap, because they were too small to toss bales onto the wagon or to carry full pails of sap through the snow. I don't think they really believed me, but I recall driving the truck across fields (hand-throttle, no power steering). You just had to go reasonably straight and not run over bales. An adult would jump in at the edge of the field and crank it around and get you started on the next row). Of course, once you were big enough, you got promoted to sap buckets and lugging wood.

Anyhow, my wife was cleaning out a box of photos today, and came across a DVD of old home videos. One scene was sugaring with a bulldozer pulling a sledge with a gathering tank. A small kid about 9-10 crawls up onto the bulldozer (with some difficulty) and drives off, with the adults pointing out where to go as they walk around gathering buckets. Really funny and a great blast from the past.

Attachment 19524

That reminds me of me, I can remember putting the 1 ton in Low Range, someone would let the clutch out for me in granny gear and I would drive the truck and trailer around the Hay field. Probably no more than 5 years old. I hadn't thought of that in a long time.

Like Spud said things sure have changed.